Slip a Sable Under the Tree For Me -Sableye/Garbodor and Giratina EX/Seismitoad EX in Expanded

What's up Some1sPC readers! I haven't played in a tournament since Memphis Regionals and this has given me more time to playtest so I can prepare for Dallas Regionals. This holiday break from tournaments has been relaxing and allowed me to focus more on the game instead of scrapping together decks. I'm still itching to secure my World's invitation as I'm only 30 points away, but I should be able to lock that up very soon. In preparation for Dallas, I think it's most important to reflect on what happened at the previous Regional, San Jose. It’s clear that the best two decks in the Expanded format right now are Night March and Zoroark variants. They're consistent and overpowered, which makes them an easy recommendation for any player in Dallas. Even though they're really strong, I do think we have answers to them because of the large card pool in Expanded. The one concept I specifically have in mind is lock decks. Our very own Drew Bennett-Kennett played Wailord to a Top 8 finish at San Jose and I think this shows that lock decks are viable against the format. Night March and Zoroark have a glaring weakness and dependence on Special Energies that we can take advantage of. I personally love lock decks, as they provide more guaranteed matchups and an easier time in making Day 2 of any event. I hope this article will convince you to trying out one of these decks or spark an idea of another lock deck that people are overlooking.

Sableye Garbodor

Pokemon (12)

4 Sableye

3 Trubbish NVI

2 Garbodor BKP

1 Garbodor GRI

1 Tapu Lele GX

1 Shaymin EX

Trainers (42)

1 Ace Trainer

1 Delinquent

1 Ghetsis

1 Guzma

2 N

4 Professor Sycamore

1 Team Flare Grunt

1 Team Rocket's Handiwork

1 Xerosic

1 Gladion

1 Battle Compressor

1 Captivating Poke Puff

1 Counter Catcher

2 Crushing Hammer

2 Enhanced Hammer

1 Field Blower

3 Puzzle of Time

1 Super Rod

3 Trainers' Mail

1 Trick Shovel

4 Ultra Ball

3 VS Seeker

3 Float Stone

1 Life Dew

1 Parallel City

Energy (6)

4 Blend GFPD

2 Dark

Deck Explanation

This deck aims to lock your opponent out of the game by reusing Items and Supporters while Ability locking them with Garbotoxin. We have two win conditions; the first one is to win by running our opponent out of resources and decking them out. The second win condition is to take prizes against a crippled board using Trashalanche. The main attack and combo you will use in this deck are Junk Hunt from Sableye to recycle Puzzle of Time. This creates an endless loop, which theoretically gives you infinite resources and disruption. In most matchups, your early game will be to establish a Garbotoxin Garbodor as soon as possible. To slow them down, we can discard all of their Energy with our Energy removal cards and disrupt their hand with our Supporter cards. Once the lock has finally settled in and they can't attack anymore, you can start being more aggressive and go after their deck. We can seal the lock with Trick Shovel and finish games in time with Team Rocket's Handiwork.

Card Counts

4 Sableye

This is the main attacker of the deck and you will find yourself using Junk Hunt for the majority of the game. Sableye has an incredible attack that allows you to loop your deck endlessly, because of the overpowered Trainers available within the Expanded card pool. You essentially have access to everything in your deck as long as it's in your discard and you can get it back immediately thanks to cards like Puzzle of Time. I believe this attack is borderline GX level and the fact that you can use it without drawbacks makes for a busted mechanic in the game.

3 Trubbish NVI 2 Garbodor BKP 1 Garbodor GRI

Garbage Collection Trubbish from Noble Victories has a single retreat cost, which makes it a perfect fit in here and it has a nice little attack that can help us put back a resource to the top of our deck if we're desperate. Garbodor BKP gives us access to locking our opponent from abilities with Garbotoxin and this helps us set up our brutal lock. Lastly, the coolest addition I've seen to this deck is Garbodor GRI. Igor Costa and Jimmy Pendarvis took it to the first Expanded Regionals of the year and I was impressed with the added dimension it brings to the deck. Not only do you have to deal with managing your resources against this deck which requires you to play slower and conservatively, but you have to potentially face a Garbodor that will basically knockout anything you have. The access to Garbodor GRI provides another form of Energy removal and a way to take prizes.

1 Tapu Lele GX 1 Shaymin EX

Why not more? I think this is the perfect amount to play in this deck as you don't want to put more liabilities into play. This is a prize denial war and it's important to not give them any shortcuts to winning the game. Tapu Lele GX gives us access to all of our Supporters and Shaymin EX provides us reach when we need to hit a critical card on an important turn. In the event you're forced to put down both of the two prize Pokémon, you can easily fix this problem by discarding them with Parallel City.

1 Battle Compressor

I view Battle Compressor as a consistency card, as it thins your deck while making VS Seeker live for draw Supporters. It has additional usage in Sableye Garbodor, as you can discard your Puzzle of Time so you can start Junk Hunting more efficiently. If you already have that setup, you can basically search for any card and put it into your hand via Junk Hunt.

1 Counter Catcher 1 Captivating Poke Puff

Counter Catcher is a new inclusion from the Crimson Invasion that I'm loving in testing. Counter Catcher saves you a turn of having to use Guzma as your Supporter and it is easily accessible once you get it into your discard. Since you're usually behind on prizes from the start of the game, it's easy to find opportunities to use Counter Catcher. Now the only downside to this card is if your opponent can keep targets with a heavy retreat cost off the bench. This is why Captivating Poke Puff has a spot in the deck; you can force their hand by picking a Pokémon they’re holding and put it on their bench. After you do that, you just Counter Catcher up the new target and lock them out of the game. This is usually easy, as hands get fairly large when playing against Sableye.

2 Crushing Hammer 2 Enhanced Hammer

These are the main two Energy removal cards and a vital part of the deck. Since we have access to Junk Hunt and Puzzle of Time, we don't need to play four copies of both. I believe two copies of each are the best way to play it in the current Metagame, as you can either Junk Hunt or Puzzle of Time for two of them and remove energies from their threats. Should the Metagame change to less Special Energy, I would consider more Crushing Hammer and less Enhanced Hammer.

3 Puzzle of Time

Puzzle of Time is the main target of Junk Hunt, as they allow for maximum versatility. We can adapt to how our opponent's following turn played out and respond with the perfect two cards to deny their win condition or improve our board state. Three Puzzle of Time may seem weird, but it's because there's no reason to play four except for putting less strain on our Junk Hunt. We realistically play the same two Puzzle of Time over and over again. The third is in case we happen to prize one of our Puzzles and to net us an extra card off Junk Hunt if we happen to have three in hand.

1 Field Blower 1 Super Rod 1 Parallel City

Field Blower is a strong card in this deck since we have the ability use it as many times as we want. We can run them out of Tools and Stadiums completely while making Garbodor's Trashalanche stronger. There's only one copy in this list because we don’t rely on Abilities so we are fine if we can't draw it immediately. Super Rod is one of the most important cards in the deck, as it keeps the endless loop intact by preventing us from decking out. We can recycle our Sableyes and Energy with Super Rod after a Puzzle of Time. The one Parallel City is for cases of denying our opponent the luxury of taking two prize knockouts on Tapu Lele GX or Shaymin EX. Back in the day, you could use Parallel City to stop Greninja from being able to one shot you, but that deck is seeing less play now.

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SOME1SPC was created by Christopher Taporco, Dylan Bryan, Marc Albright, and Russell LaParre with the intention to provide quality competitive content for the Pokemon Trading Card Game. We're a group of friends looking to better ourselves and the community by leveling up our deckbuilding, gameplay, and knowledge.